Various types of auditory prosthesis systems have been developed to assist patients who have severe (e.g., complete) hearing loss. For example, cochlear implant systems may provide a sense of hearing for sensorineural hearing loss patients by providing electrical stimulation representative of sound directly to stimulation sites within the cochlea. As another example, electro-acoustic stimulation (“EAS”) systems may assist patients with some degree of residual hearing in the low frequencies (e.g., below 1000 Hz) by providing acoustic stimulation representative of low frequency audio content and electrical stimulation representative of high frequency content.
Many auditory prosthesis systems include a sound processor apparatus (e.g., a behind-the-ear (“BTE”) sound processing unit, a body worn device, etc.) configured to be located external to the patient. The sound processor apparatus may perform a variety of functions, such as processing audio signals presented to the patient, controlling an operation of one or more implantable devices (e.g., one or more cochlear implants), and providing power to the one or more implantable devices. Various auditory prosthesis systems include interfaces for connecting external components to sound processors using a wired connection. For example, external components, such as a battery or programming system, may be connected to a sound processor via one or more data lines.
Unfortunately, wireless connection of a sound processor apparatus to external devices has been limited. Certain technologies allow for limited wireless communications between a sound processor apparatus and an implanted cochlear implant while the two devices are in close range of each other. However, such wireless technologies do not allow for other types of wireless communication, such as communication between the sound processor apparatus and various commercial accessories, such as mobile computing devices. Conventional technologies that might facilitate such wireless communication with external accessories, such as Bluetooth-based wireless technology, have proven to be impractical to implement in auditory prosthesis systems due to the large size and excessive power consumption of the required components.